oak grove media

this is obvious, right?

you can't charge the end user for podcasting content unless it's original and exclusive content. and preferrably it's niche content where there's little or no content available in the first place . . .

sa::tm

a legitimate fear

i've always been an entrepreneur, but i've 'officially' been that for the last several years. oak grove media (and all the individual projects entailed in that) is the biggest pursuit to date.

hey, we have vc money and everything!

given that i'm playing with other people's money and the scope of oak grove media is fairly significant, i work . . . all . . . the . . . time. i enjoy it immensely 95% of the time, but i still work . . . all . . . the . . . time.

i have a very real--and i think very legitimate fear--that when i sell oak grove (or some signifiant component of it), i won't know how to stop working.

i don't want that to be the case.

sa::tm

digg.com feature

if you're leveraging a blog on your site (and if you're not, you should. no, you have to. please tell me i don't have to explain what a blog does for your site . . .), you'll want to check this out.

there's a version of this created by someone not affiliated w/ digg. it gets the job done, but at least in firefox, the load time is muuuuuch longer than the 'official' digg.com script.

sa::tm

the fo: wiredparish.com blogger laureate

we conscripted the fo as our blogger laureate at wiredparish. check him out. he's quite good.

excuses: a rant

got on the phone with one of our contract programmers today. long story short is that we made a bad decision to let him program in his language of choice rather than ours (he can do both). this led to needing to host much of our content on his servers. unbeknownst to us, his hosting company doesn't even offer a freaking control panel.

i know what you're thinking--'um, isn't that a bit micky mouse? like, a LOT mickey mouse?'

the two part answer to that is a) 'yes it is' and b) 'with a gun barrel stuck between your teeth you can only speak in vowels.'

we're extracting ourselves from this as quickly possible, of course, but in the meantime, i need a subdomain setup. takes 30 seconds--when you have your own control panel. (believe me, i feel like a complete idiot for travelling down this road.)

without your own control panel? about 3 emails, 2 phone calls, and 2 1/2 days.

so today during phone call number 2, i said to him 'dude, come on. this is crazy.' (or some version thereof.)

he then launched into a story of how his data center had really been letting him down lately, etc. excuses.

i interrupted and said (and i quote), 'bro, not to be callous, but i don't care. i just want my subdomain.'

the excuses stopped, but so did any other commentary or responsiveness. total silence. like, looong silence.

after several seconds of silence, i said, 'okay?'

and in what was either a very pissed off or very ashamed or very both voice, he replied quite tersely, 'okay.'

here's the deal. he's a nice guy. his programming is fine. but every conversation with him involves an excuse at some point as to why something isn't getting done and why it isn't his fault.

the bottom line is i really, really, really don't care why something isn't getting done that he's promised to accomplished. i just want the result i've asked for and that has been promised.

in fact, giving me excuses as to why something isn't getting done seriously diminishes my confidence in you because it tells me that any number of things are capable of derailing you from delivering on what you said you would deliver.

i don't care. i really don't want to know. if x isn't done, just tell me 'x isn't done. i've dropped the ball. i will do whatever it takes to get it done by the end of the day.' that's taking responsibility and that's getting the job done.

sa::tm

millions of balls in the air

this is the third company i have started. (for the record, the first one was extremely successful and the second was a wash.) for all three companies, the sheer volume of details that have to be addressed is staggering and nigh unto overwhelming on some days. and that, friends, is exactly why i love startups. they require a gargantuan amount of focus and energy, and that is so much freaking fun!

sa::tm

wiredparish.com launches

we are in a pre-launch phase with wiredparish.com. people are able to subscribe (and are doing so!) and get some free stuff for subbing early. there are also free 'casts available for download.

at $6.95/month for 20+ 'casts a week, we're confident we've hit a really generous price point. (pre-subscriptions are confirming this.)

it feels oh-so-good to finally generate revenue after nearly 10 months of doing nothing but spending money!

sa::tm

venture voice podcast

found the venture voice podcast a week or two ago. really, really good stuff. you owe it to yourself to check it out.

sa::tm

free to air satellite

podsat.net is offering podcasters the opportunity to broadcast their content on satellite radio for the low, low, low, low price of $1/minute.

i'm sure the people at podsat are awesome, fun to party with, and generally upstanding human beings, but this is just a bad idea.

they're offering access to what's called 'free to air' satellite radio.

think: public access cable channels. yes, it's true that you have access to a huge audience, but it's also true that none of them are paying attention to you. think of how often you watch public access cable. (and if you actually watch public access cable, think of how often you don't get dates.)

but it's worse than that, because at least with public access cable, people already have tvs.

with fta satellite, people have to buy $200 worth of equipment to get started.

yes, you have access to both tv and radio signals. yes, you have access to lots of stations. but before you get too excited, here are some examples of fta stations:

prison tv network (totally not kidding)
pbs hdtv (seriously, i'm not kidding)
reality radio network (this one sounds fine until you consider that 2 of their 3 [!] hosts also broadcasts on shortwave radio)

short version: don't bother. stick with podcasting, friends.

sa::tm